WASHINGTON — President Obama is trying to boost Hillary Clinton by saying that he had an unfair advantage over her in 2008 because the press was in his corner and she had to meet high expectations, which included a perfect hairdo.

“She had to wake up earlier than I did because she had to get her hair done,” Obama said in an interview with Politico.

“The truth is, in 2007 and 2008, sometimes my supporters and my staff I think got too huffy about what were legitimate questions she was raising,” Obama said. “And there were times where I think the media probably was a little unfair to her and tilted a little my way in calling her out.”

In fact, he said, Clinton “had a tougher job throughout that primary than I did. She had to do everything that I had to do, except, like Ginger Rogers, backwards in heels. She had to wake up earlier than I did because she had to get her hair done. She had to, you know, handle all the expectations that were placed on her. Had things gone a little bit different in some states or if the sequence of primaries and caucuses been a little different, she could have easily won.”

Obama is officially neutral in the presidential race, but the commander-in-chief didn’t dispute the notion Clinton’s chief competitor Sen. Bernie Sanders is a one-issue candidate, whereas Clinton understands the real demands of the job.

“One thing everybody understands is that this job right here, you don’t have the luxury of just focusing on one thing,” Obama said.

“Bernie came in with the luxury of being a complete long shot and just letting loose … I think Hillary came in with both the privilege — and burden — of being perceived as the front-runner … You’re always looking at the bright, shiny object that people haven’t seen before — that’s a disadvantage to her.”

In 2008, Clinton was also the front-runner, but Obama captivated the hopes of Iowans and delivered the young senator his first victory.

Obama dismissed that notion that Sanders, a 74-year-old self-described socialist, is replicating his own winning campaign.

“I don’t think that’s true,” Obama said.

Clinton’s strengths can also be her weaknesses, Obama said ticking off her attributes — “extraordinarily experienced,” “wicked smart” and “she can govern and start here on Day 1 more experienced than any non-vice president has ever been.”

“Sometimes [those] could make her more cautious and her campaign more prose than poetry, but those are also her strengths,” Obama said from the Oval Office.

In the closing days before the neck-and-neck Feb. 1 caucuses, Clinton has positioned herself as the experienced realist, claiming Sanders is too idealistic to govern. Obama played into Clinton’s narrative by suggesting Sanders has yet to be fully vetted.

“I think that if Bernie won Iowa or won New Hampshire, then … [reporters would] dig into his proposals and how much they cost and what does it mean, and, you know, how does his tax policy work and he’s subjected, then, to a rigor that hasn’t happened yet, but that Hillary is very well familiar with,” Obama said.